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mellied1975 's review for:

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
5.0

I feel like I'm still processing this book after finishing the audio version this afternoon. It's my first time reading it as an adult and the Ingalls' experience during this endless, brutal winter was even more intense and terrifying than I remembered. They and many others in DeSmet, South Dakota could so easily have starved or frozen to death as blizzard after blizzard after blizzard kept the railroad from delivering food and coal for months on end. It's a story that kept me on the edge of my seat with worry, even though I knew how it would all turn out.

As I listened to descriptions of the Ingalls subsisting for months on nothing but coarse brown bread and spending all day knotting up hay to use in the fire, losing strength as they wasted away from hunger, I kept thinking back to [b:Little House in the Big Woods|8337|Little House in the Big Woods (Little House, #1)|Laura Ingalls Wilder|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1621570121l/8337._SX50_.jpg|1200805], remembering the attic there filled with plenty of food for the winter. Not to mention the woods full of trees to cut down for winter fuel. I couldn't help wishing the family had just stayed put all those years ago! What can I say, I would not have been a good pioneer.

As always with the audiobook series, Cherry Jones does a wonderful job of narrating the story, bringing it to life in a new and engaging way. The fiddle music adds so much atmosphere, too. I can't recommend the audio versions enough - they're just great.

Five stars for this tense, vividly written classic. It's one of the best books in the series.